INTERNATIONAL ENFORCEMENT OF JUDGMENTS AND ARBITRAL AWARDS:
CHALLENGES FOR CREDITORS, DEBTORS AND INTERNATIONAL BANKS

As companies do business in
increasingly diverse locales, they also find themselves in
ever-more-complicated disputes over the enforcement of international
arbitration awards and cross-border litigation judgments.

Proper knowledge
of the procedures for global enforcement of judgments and awards, once they
have been obtained, has never been more necessary. But it is not always
sufficient. A recent US
court decision confirms how important it is for companies entering into
international business transactions to consider the enforcement of judgments
and arbitral awards when drafting contracts, long before any dispute has
arisen.

Aggressive
international judgment enforcement disputes have also entangled international
banks and other third parties that hold judgment debtors’ assets or accounts,
and in some US
jurisdictions, third parties have been subjected to an increasingly complicated
and ambiguous judgment enforcement regime.

Does your dispute
resolution clause give you the right tools?

Many businesses
have learned that an appropriate dispute resolution clause is an indispensable
part of an international contract. Will disputes go to litigation or
arbitration? Where will the dispute be heard, and what law will apply? By now,
addressing these issues at the outset of a relationship hopefully is routine.
But it can be just as important to include provisions from the start about will
happen after the appropriate tribunal has rendered its decision.